Mental Health

As discussed on some of the other pages, some people consider being multiple to be a mental health issue and others do not. However, individually and as a group We do find ourselves susceptible to things that are clearly mental health problems.

Depression is a thing which has been prevalent throughout our life. There are one or two of us who are more vulnerable to this, but as a group it can have an impact on all of our lives at times. Our depression has a seasonal element to it and gets worse for us in the darker months of the year. We use a SAD (Seasonal affective disorder- Affect = Mood) light as well as our anti-depressant medication at these times.

Anxiety really is a daily factor in our mental health. Some days are better than others. Some days are worse. It is rare that We have a day free from anxiety. Sometimes We worry because We have nothing to worry about, like We are missing something that We should be concerned about. Anxiety is one of the most common mental health problems around but many mental health professionals fail to recognise the debilitating impact it has on the lives of sufferers.

Paranoia is a form of disordered thoughts, part of a group of symptoms collectivly known as psychosis. Psychosis is something that can stand alone, but can also be part of severe mental health disorders including Schizophrenia. In our case the paranoia is something which causes us distress when we are especially depressed, this is sometimes known as Psychotic Depression. When paranoid we believe that people have said something unpleasant or nasty, that they don't like us or are otherwise just out to cause us trouble. Sometimes the way someone looks at us is bad enough. On one occasion that we were really bad we thought that special forces were folloing us.

March 2023